Final Fantasy XII

After numerous development delays and with four years separating it from the last major release in the series, Square Enix’s latest RPG Final Fantasy XII had to pull off something special to prove itself.

Did it succeed? Undoubtedly - and more. The story takes place in the world of Ivalice, where magic and airships are commonplace, and there is trouble in the heart of the Arcadian Empire. The player takes command of Vaan, an orphan whose home nation has been conquered by the Arcadians, in a rebellion against the Empire. The characters aren’t developed as much as in previous Final Fantasy titles which can be a slight disappointment, but a strong script incorporating a number of different dialects helps give each character a strong sense of individuality. The focus of the story is very much on the wider world than on the individual characters.

Nobody does PS2 graphics better than Square-Enix and this shows with hugely detailed environments and by far the largest explorable world in any Final Fantasy game. The attention to detail and vastly populated towns surpass anything else on the system, although the population takes longer to load then the towns themselves so the player will occasionally find themselves in a deserted city for ten seconds before the people suddenly appear.

Final Fantasy XII takes the series in a bold new direction with its new “Active-Dimension-Battle” system. Gone are the random encounters and turn based fighting seen in previous installments, the ADB attempts to blend traditional Final Fantasy strategy with semi-real time combat. All enemies are fought in the open environment with no transition from exploration to battle. The player can pause the action at any time to select commands, but also available are various “gambits”, which give party members a set of customizable instructions to follow which allows the fights to flow in a much more believable manner. These new features are incorporated with resounding success, the gambits being 100% optional to please old time fans that would rather input each command themselves.

The game also utilizes a new customization system that is the spiritual successor to the Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X. In order to be able to use a new “Magick” or piece of equipment, the player must first buy the license for it on the License Board. The player can only buy licenses adjacent to ones already bought, but the freedom of the board is much greater than the old Sphere Grid, with no set paths to follow and this allows each character to be fully customized in whatever way the player wants.

For the first time in the main series Nobuo Uematsu was absent from most of the soundtrack, supplying only the title song “Kiss Me Goodbye”. Music duties therefore fell to Final Fantasy Tactics’ composer Hitoshi Sakimoto and the difference in style shows. Music is atmospheric and sets the tone of the scene efficiently wherever it is used, but the sound lacks the hum-along quality of previous titles and this unfortunately numbs the effect of some of the more impressive cut-scenes.


Despite small issues Final Fantasy XII is an excellent adventure worth a good sixty hours of gameplay before even considering the hunts - which add on so much play time they could justify a game of their own. A true return to form from a series plagued with half hearted sequels and spin-offs over the last few years and a hearty send off for Final Fantasy on PS2.

Overall: 10/10